Area Hmong worried for relatives overseas

Refugees moved from Thai camp rumored to be beaten, seriously hurt

Dec. 29, 2009

A Thai police officer holds a child while escorting Hmong asylum seekers from a refugee camp earlier this week. Thailand sent army troops to evict nearly 4,000 ethnic Hmong and send them back to Laos despite strong objections from the United States. / AP photo from the Royal Thai Army

Written by

For help

Questions or concerns? Contact Vaugh Vang at (920) 713-5410.To learn about the Center for Public Policy Analysis, visit www.cppa-dc.org.

More

ADVERTISEMENT

The calls keep coming to Vaughn Vang of the Lao Hmong Human Rights Council in Green Bay.

Uncles are missing. A brother and sister, once in a refugee camp, can't be found. A family member is in jail.

Families throughout Wisconsin are frightened for the Hmong they've heard have been beaten or seriously wounded while being moved from a Thailand refugee camp, Vang said. Thai troops packed more than 4,000 ethnic Hmong into military trucks for a one-way journey to Laos, all but ending the Hmong's three-decade search for asylum following their alliance with the U.S. during the Vietnam War.

The United States and rights groups have said the Hmong could be in danger if returned to the country that they fought, unsuccessfully, to keep from falling into communist hands in the 1970s.

Though Thai soldiers were armed with batons and shields Monday, Thai officials said no weapons were used in the repatriation and the Hmong offered no resistance. The last of the group crossed the border early Tuesday.

But Vang said local residents are getting reports from family members in the camp about beatings with shovel handles, heavy clubs and guns.

"They have been beaten up and tied up and thrown in a truck," he said. "We don't know how many were killed or dumped in jail. One family member talked to someone who was in jail."

The Center for Public Policy Analysis in Washington, D.C., backs Vang's assessment.

"Some of the Hmong men wounded today are reported to be in critical condition with severe blood loss from repeated blows to the head, face and torso by Thai soldiers armed with a number of lethal and nonlethal weapons," executive director Philip Smith said in a written release.

The Thai government claims most of the Hmong are economic migrants who entered the country illegally and have no claims to refugee status.

Vang said local Hmong were able to reach family members by cell phone before the Thai military blocked or jammed mobile access at the camp, located in Thailand's Petchabun Province.

(Page 2 of 2)

"Some have been able to communicate, some have not," he said. "Some of them will call once they are a few miles away from the camp … the whole Hmong community in the world are very scared. They are an innocent people, they are a little people."

Vang works with Hmong refugees from around Wisconsin and the U.S. He said the Thai military began beating people and forcing them into trucks on Sunday.

"I'm still fishing for answers," he said. "They say they have the right to beat them up, to shoot them. I want answers. They can't force them back to Laos where they could be in serious danger."

The European Union said it was "deeply dismayed" by the forcible deportation and issued a statement that urged Laos to ensure the Hmong's human rights are protected and international observers are granted "unfettered access" to them.

Many Hmong, an ethnic minority from Laos' rugged mountains, fought under CIA advisers during Vietnam to back a pro-American Lao government — Washington's so-called "secret war" — before the communist victory in 1975.

Since the war, more than 300,000 Lao, mostly Hmong, are known to have fled to Thailand and for years were housed in sprawling camps aided by international agencies. Most were either repatriated to Laos or resettled in third countries, particularly the United States. Smaller numbers found refuge in France, Australia and Canada.

But now Thailand says it plans to close the camp it emptied Monday.

"We want to know who had the right to do this, to send them back to a country where they could be beaten or killed," Vang said. "And we want the (United Nations) and the U.S. to pressure Laos and to assist them to be sure those who've been beaten up receive medical attention."